Part-time New Orleanian, professor and culinary historian Jessica Harris has written 11 cookbooks, including "The Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking, " "The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent" and "Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim." Her latest book, however, is a sweeping story of food and cooks through history: "High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America" (Bloomsbury, $26).

The Times-Picayune archiveJessica Harris at the Crescent City Farmers Market in 2004.

"It's a summation, if you will, in some ways, of all the other books, " Harris said last week in a telephone interview from her other home in New York. "It's a narrative history of African-Americans and foods from Africa to the present in brief compass.

"The idea was, who are some of the people who made this food, who took this food, who kept this food, who husbanded this food."

Harris will be in New Orleans this week, signing copies of the book at 1 p.m. Sunday at Faulkner Books, 624 Pirate Alley. (She also is speaking Saturday on dress -- "tignons, jewelry and sumptuary laws" -- at the Historic New Orleans' Collection's annual symposium, "Identity, History, Legacy: Free People of Color in Louisiana; see the www.hnoc.org website.)

"It's part of the story of food I've been working on and writing about longer than I probably can count. At least the better part of 30 years, " Harris said.

She is a tenured English professor at Queens College, City University of New York, and was the first scholar to hold the chair at the Ray Charles Program in African-American Material Culture at Dillard University, where she established the Institute for the Study of Culinary Cultures. She remains a consultant to the institute and to Dillard. In 2010, she was inducted into the James Beard Foundation's Who's Who in Food and Beverage in America and won the Lafcadio Hearn award by the John Folse Culinary Institute as a south Louisiana food icon.

"I tell some connected stories and give some historical points, " Harris said of the book.

For New Orleanians familiar with local culinary history, connecting the dots on these

points is fascinating. We have rice fritters, or calas, while in West Africa they make similar fritters of black eyed peas called akara. We know that many immigrants came here from Haiti after the 1804 revolution, influencing our culture; Harris writes about other cities where they landed as well.

Harris also writes about the grim experiences of the enslaved. One of the things that "totally gobsmacked me, " Harris said, are the "statistics on enslavement and how many slaves people really had. The average number was 10. That's a very different experience" from the rice and cane plantations where hundreds labored.

She delineates the two resulting strands of culinary influence: Cabin slaves had "scant meals of hog and hominy, " while those in the "Big House" category tended sophisticated tables and kitchens. The latter would include Hercules, the first black chef for the country's first president, the enslaved overseer of George Washington's kitchens. At one point at Mount Vernon, Hercules oversaw a German cook and two French ones. Despite his fame and relative freedom of movement, Hercules escaped and was never captured.

After Emancipation, many African-Americans went into culinary service fields. One of Harris' most fascinating stories is set in Philadelphia, another port town whose Quaker background helped give it special significance for African-Americans.

In her extensive history of Philadelphia's African-American food service industry, Harris tells the story of Robert Bogle, a "public butler" (and also an undertaker) who "organized meals and waited on a number of different households. Robert Bogle created the role of caterer from that of the public butler, although the term 'caterer' did not come into wide usage until the mid-19th century, " Harris writes.

Bogle was the first of the city's major black caterers. Other individuals and families in catering prospered, and they became the city's black elite.

"It's glorious to think about the caterers, " Harris said. "And it's nice to think about Lena Richard, " who by 1937 had a cooking school, gumbo shops and a catering business in New Orleans. Her privately published 1938 cookbook was published internationally in 1940 as "The New Orleans Cook Book, " the first local one published by an African-American.

In 1947, Richard became the first African-American woman to have her own television show, almost 20 years before Julia Child. She was on WDSU from 1947 to 1949.

Harris' book is not the academic, definitive volume on African-American cuisine. The cavalcade of culinary notables and their work, Harris says, are "from an iceberg that is largely still uncovered. There are so many fascinating people.

"I'm sure that for every person I mentioned by name, there are hundreds, or possibly hundreds of thousands, who are out there, " she said. "Future historians will have so much fun.

"It's amazing what we don't know. It's amazing what still is out there remaining to be uncovered. If anything, (the book) will hopefully begin discussions, and uncover so much more."

And those discussions are inevitable. Her book is currently under consideration for a community reading program in a Georgia town.

"It could be an interesting community read in New Orleans because it's about things that bring us together, as opposed to things that take us apart. And that's important, " Harris said.

Harris' writing connects her to her forebearers, she notes. Her mother's father was born enslaved in Virginia and was in his 30s at the time of Emancipation; he was said to once have served Abraham Lincoln at dinner. Harris introduces chapters with personal anecdotes, starting with her first visit to an African market with her mother on "a sunny day in Dakar."

A few recipes appear at the end of the book, and this is the first one, the first dish Harris tasted on the African continent.

Yassa au Poulet

Makes 8 servings

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

4 large onions, sliced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

5 tablespoons peanut oil

1 habanero chile, pricked with a fork

1 2-1/2- to 4-1/2-pound frying chicken, cut into serving parts

1/2 cup water

The night before, prepare marinade by mixing lemon juice, onions, salt, pepper, 4 tablespoons peanut oil and the chile in a deep bowl. When the marinade has reached the desired heat, remove the chile. Place chicken pieces in the marinade, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to cook, preheat broiler. Remove chicken from marinade, reserving the marinade. Place pieces on broiler rack and grill briefly, until lightly browned on both sides. Set aside.

Remove onions from marinade with a slotted spoon. Heat remaining tablespoon oil in a deep skillet, add onions and saute over medium heat until tender and translucent. Add remaining marinade to skillet and cook until liquid is heated through. Add chicken pieces and the water and stir to mix well. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes, or until the chicken pieces are cooked through.

Serve hot over white rice.

This is from Lena Richard's "New Orleans Cookbook".

Lena's Baked Custard

2 eggs

2 tablespoons sugar

2 cups milk

Pinch salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Break eggs into a bowl, add sugar and beat with a spoon. Pour in milk and add salt. Stir and strain through a fine sieve. Add vanilla, stir again and pour into custard cups. Place the cups in a shallow pan containing 1-1/2 inches of hot water and place in oven. The water in the bottom of the baking pan should not boil. After custard has baked about a half-hour, insert a knife in the center of each cup. If the knife comes out clean, the custard is done; if it comes out coated, continue cooking. Allow to cool before serving.

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Jessica Harris in New Orleans:

Saturday, 11 a.m., Historic New Orleans Collection, speaking on 'Dress as Status in the French-Creole World' at the HNOC annual symposium, 'Identity, History, Legacy: Free People of Color in Louisiana'; see www.hnoc.org for details and to register.